Category: Sweden

ICEHOTEL is a hotel built each year with snow and ice in the village of Jukkasjärvi, in northern Sweden, about 17 kilometres (11 mi) from Kiruna. It is the world’s first ice hotel. After its first opening in 1990, the hotel has been built each year from December to April. The hotel, including the chairs and beds, is constructed from snow and ice blocks taken from the nearby Torne River. Artists are invited to create different rooms and decorations made by ice. Besides bedrooms, there is a bar, with glasses made…

Back in 2009, the Swedish tourism industry expected turnover from tourists to Sweden would double to 500 billion kronor ($74.4 billion) by 2020. However, lackluster spending by foreign tourists has forced the Swedish Travel and Tourism Industry (RTS) to lower their expectations to 451 billion. “It’s the foreign tourism that’s not growing at the speed we anticipated,” said Jan Lundin of the RTS to Dagens Industi newspaper (DI). “Swedish tourism continues to grow, however”. In fact, tourism in Sweden is continuing to grow as an overall trend, and experts insist…